Third-party blues: do African Americans need an independent party?

Black Enterprise, Nov, 1995 by Michael Fisby

As the presidential campaign nears, Democrats face a vexing problem: African Americans fleeing their ranks. Many black Democrats are fed up with the political descendants of Roosevelt and Kennedy, and advocate the formation of a third party to fight for social programs, an urban policy and economic justice for the working class.

Some black activists, like Ron Daniels of Campaign For A Better Tomorrow, have already held strategy session's with leaders of the Green Party and the New Party. Daniels' goal is to unite progressives--black and white. As the country grows more conservative, the question is not whether liberals will field candidates, but when? "We need to find ways to argue new politics and make new alliances," says Gerry Hudson, an executive vice president of the health care workers union in New York.

But there are obstacles. Howard University political science professor Ron Walters says a third party would need a charismatic presidential candidate to be taken seriously. Many want the Rev. Jesse Jackson or Gen. Colin Powell to blaze that trail. Could either win? Probably not. But they could help galvanize this bold new movement.

Jackson or Powell would easily topple the 5% voter threshold required for a new party to be officially recognized as a "minor party" and receive millions in federal funds for the next election. If they got 25% of the vote, the party would get the same amount as the Democrats and Republicans--$40 million in 1992.

But other third-party activists, like the New Party's Dan Cantor, focus on running sprints before marathons. "It's taken a long time for liberals to get this weak; there's no quick route back to power," Cantor says. The little-known New Party has about 5,000 members, half of whom are black, and has run candidates in 115 elections, from school boards to zoning commissions. They've won an astonishing 77 races.

What's undeniable is that blacks want change. In a poll of black Americans, University of Chicago's Michael Dawson found that 50% of poll respondents support the idea of an independent black party. Led by young and poorer blacks, the percentage willing to support an independent party has doubled in six years. Before that, the number had been steadily declining.

This nationalistic trend was seen in other areas too: 68% of respondents said they should control their community's government; 74% said they should control their economics; and 56% said they should participate in black-only organizations.

Those sentiments, moreover, are only intensified by the Supreme Court's retreat on civil rights, dubbed "political apartheid" by University of Massachusetts Professor William Strickland. Black leaders are pushing voter registration as the means to recoup the losses. Black votes, after all, usually provide the victory margin for Democrats in southern and industrial states. The threat of abandoning the party can force through the right policies. President Clinton backed off rolling back affirmative action, in part, because it was clear that blacks would revolt at the voting booth.

Jackson wants clout to lift blacks to the policy-making inner circle. "We have the power to help or hurt," he says. "We should have the power to be at the table discussing problems."